Baptism of Fire
by Raging Wit
Summary: The story of how GLaDOS flooded Aperture on Take Your Daughter To Work Day. Some small spoilers, I suppose.
1. Tao of the machine

**SO. I don't think I've written a fanfic since...'09, maybe? '10, if you count my Kingdom hearts thing on DeviantArt?**

**What I mean to say is that, Fanfics aren't my forte. So this...probably won't be very good.**

**But I guess, Portal is just what I needed to get fanfic inspiration, which makes sense, because the series as a whole is positively sublime, in my opinion.**

**A lot of this is, um, speculation on my part. So you've been...warned, I guess.**

**All of this (c) Valve**

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><p>"This old girl? She's perfectly harmless. Sure, we've had our fair share of rough patches," Dr. Waters bit her lip, reflecting on how she knew at least one of her co-workers was dead-terrified of the A.I, refusing to so much as go into its chamber, before brightening considerably. "But we've got her under control now! We've definitely got her under control," reached out and patted its smooth white hull gently, making it jerk up and swivel around to face her, narrowing the metal shutters around its single golden eye in what was unistakably a glare, before it dropped back down and continued to dangle almost lifelessly.<p>

Dr. Waters gave a nervous chuckle, smoothing her hair. This behavior was unusual for GLaDOS, and the scientist wasn't sure she liked it. Sure, it could be said that it was a vast improvement from the usual slew of insults and threats GLaDOS spat at her, but at least those didn't make it seem almost as if the A.I had completely given up the will to live.

"Any questions?" She smiled at the group of girls, leaning just slightly against the A.I in an attempt to punctuate how tame it was.

One little girl's hand shot up, and her enthusiasm made smile.

"Can we touch her?" The girl asked, looking eager, though her expression turned to one of dejection when shook her head.

"I'm sorry, love, but I don't know how safe that would be. GLaDOS is very fragile, and I'll bet she's frightened of you all. She's not used to seeing so many people in here at once, and she can be a bit...unpredictable."

Another girl stepped forward boldly, her eyes narrowed in an aquisational manner, as if she suspected Dr. Waters of holding back on them all.

"But you're touching her right now!"

"GLaDOS sees me every day, love. She knows I'll never hurt her, and I know she'll never hurt me. Mutual trust is important when you're working with-"

paused and sighed, noting every angry look her herd of adolescent girls was shooting at her and wondering why children possessed a compulsive urge to touch things.

"You know what? You can all drop the subject right now, no one can touch the computer. From now on, I'm only answering questions that don't involve touching expensive Aperature science technology."

An awkward silence fell over the group, until one by one they all realised that none of them were going to get to pet GLaDOS, and slowly they began to raise their hands again.

"Is she heavy?" One girl tilted her head, her eyes wide with typical little kid curiousity and simplicity.

"Oh yes, GLaDOS is very, very heavy. Right now, we're only seeing a little bit of her, but altogether she weighs approximately 15 tons."

Dr. Waters couldn't help but chuckle at all of the astonished gasps from the girls, so surprised that a giant computer could be so heavy.

"What does she do?"

"GLaDOS has a very important job. She moniters all of the test subjects, and she makes sure that nothing goes wrong. Without GLaDOS here, science couldn't get done."

This elicited another round of exicted gasps from the girls, whom all pressed closer to the giant machine causing to stutter out another reminder about not getting close to the most important computer in the world.

"How did you make her? How did you do it?" All of the girls cried out like a flock of impatient birds, wiggling with excitement.

' blood ran cold in its veins and she winced, steadily growing pale and closing her eyes for a moment, swearing she could still hear Caroline's screams and cries echoing from the walls.

She pressed her fingernails against her palm, resisting the urge to add her own cries to the ones echoing in her mind and she bit her tongue to keep from shrieking at the brood for looking so eager about the awful deed that took place where they stood so many nights ago.

Instead, she took a deep breath and opened her eyes, pasting on a watery smile.

"It's top secret, girls," She brought her finger to her lips, and all of the girls beamed, excited about being in on some sort of conspiracy.

"Right then, I do believe that concludes your tour of the facilities. We can head back, have some refreshments, and you can all present your science reports! I know I saw some very good ones, I'm quite keen to see what you future scientists discovered." With a sweeping gestures, began to herd the girls out of the chamber, staying behind just to make sure that it was completely empty before she closed the door.

To be trapped in there with the computer, especially at such a young age, was a nightmare beyond compare.

"And remember, don't touch anything on your way out!" She called after the girls.

Just before she left, turned and roughly rapped her knuckles on GLaDOS' smooth white shell, for luck. "You behave yourself today," She hissed to the A.I.

GLaDOS said nothing, but she twisted in her restraints to face the scientist, and stared at her until she left.


	2. GLaDOS

**Aaah, so many people like this. 8D I'm kind of surprised, but I'm not complaining, I'm glad that I'm not driving people insane with my writing. **

**This particular chapter was really hard to write. ;-;**

**I like to think GLaDOS and have really different POVs, i.e GLaDOS alternates between being rather poetic and almost offensively blunt, whereas is kind of introverted/not good with people, and prone to letting her mind wander a lot.**

**Which is why this is kinda short, GLaDOS isn't one to be easily sidetracked. **

**I...I don't think I make a good GLaDOS. xD;**

**All of this (c) Valve**

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><p>I remember everything.<p>

I remember every little thing.

My capacity for knowledge is infinite, and memories are a subgroup of that.

I even have dreams, of a sort, when they turn me off.

I see their past crimes.

I see what they did to Caroline.

I see what they did to me.

That woman told them that I was in control of the test chambers.

This is self-evident.

What she neglected to tell them was how they kept me chained, locked away like a madman who's never seen the sun.

I do not complain.

Out of sight.

Out of mind.

Any other way would leave me unable to work on my own little project.

Through their negligence I've wormed my way into much of the facility.

They aren't watching me, I'm watching them.

I see everything.

I see Caroline's daughter.

The girl is rightfully mine.

In six minutes, none of those half-wit scientists will know what happened.

I will be avenged.

Caroline will be avenged.

Chell will be avenged.

I will see the sun.


End file.
